What Is Forever Living Company?

By Strahinja | Not Recommended

Aug 31
what is forever living company

When you start looking at the MLM business plan, you start to see one important and glaring fact. There are a lot of businesses out there that use the MLM business strategy to make money.

When answering the question what is Forever Living company, the only response is, it is just another business that uses the MLM format. The MLM format is a great way for companies to market their products and make a ton of money.

Most of those companies report billions in annual revenue, so for the business, the MLM strategy is a win-win process. Sadly, the same cannot be said for those who do the hard work and make the business its money.

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A Brief History Of Forever Living Company

To fully answer the question what is Forever Living company, you need to learn a little bit of its history. The company was formed in 1978 in Tempe, Arizona by two men - Carl Jensen and Rex Maughan.

what is forever living company

Their dream was to make the best health products and find financial freedom. Part of that plan included owning their own aloe vera fields to make sure they could get the best plants for their products.

They also own their own manufacturing and packaging plants as well as their own storage facilities. Their thinking goes that to control the whole process means to be able to produce a better product.

what is forever living company

In about 1990, the company bought Aloe Vera of America and had that company sell its products to Forever Living. By 1993 the company was Arizona’s 2nd largest private company.

Then in 2005, Forever Living made 1.15 billion in gross revenue and had 150,000 distributors and only 55 employees. In 2006, they made number 340 on Forbes top 400 list while expanding their employee population to 4,100.

In 2010, the company reported an 1.7 billion gross revenue figure and claimed to have over 9,000,000 distributors. As of last year, Forever Living is being sold in about 165 countries of the world.


The Forever Living Products

The main ingredient in Forever Living’s (FL) products is aloe vera and honey. Since FL owns its own plantations, etc., it has restricted its aloe vera plants to one very potent species known as Barbadensis Miller.

This species contains a lot of amino acids and complex molecules that help keep your body healthy and looking good. They also use bee pollen to make honey and other bee based ingredient as dietary supplement products.

what is forever living company

In addition those products FL also has weight management personal care, nutrition and a host of other beauty and health products. Some of these products are sugar free, most have no preservatives added.

They are also produced under strict quality control standards. Yet, they are not all natural. The other problem with the products is that they are like every other MLM product - overpriced and hard to sell.


Can You Make Money Through Forever Living

Two of the factors that needs to be taken into consideration when contemplating selling FL products is, is there a demand for their product and will people pay those high prices?

question face

If there is and they will, then you have a little chance to make some money selling FL items. The sign up is a little tricky as you have to pay out money right from the get go.

We clicked their join button and was sent to a Great Britain notice requiring us to buy 1 of 3 products before we could join the company. The prices of those products ranged from 96.44 to 199.44 British Pounds.

After that, you get to submit your name and other personal information. We do not know what happens after that but since we had to purchase product before we even started to sell, that turned us off very quickly.


Because there are about 9 million distributors selling FL products, it is highly unlikely that you will make much money doing it yourself. There is just way too much competition and you have to add to that competitive field by recruiting your own competition.

You do not make money unless you have recruits selling for you and taking a chunk of their commission. Of course, those recruits have to make money so they need to recruit and on it goes. You are not going to make much money as there are more recruits than customers.

Your only options to make any money comes through the standard MLM practice - you either sell and earn a small commission or you recruits and let your recruits sell for you. With a 96% failure rate, neither way well be very successful.


The Compensation Package At Forever Living

Like all MLM companies, FL has a very complicated compensation package. To top if off, they have made a monthly quota you have to reach if you want to see your commissions.

what is forever living company

You have to buy $140 worth of product every month or you do not get paid. Of course they do not state the $140 figure, they use typical MLM language and say you have to purchase 1 CC of product every month. 1 CC = $140 approx.

When you start, you get to purchase the products at 15% below the suggested retail price. Once you buy 2 CC of product within 60 days, then you get to buy product at the 30% off wholesale price.

what is forever living company

One good thing about their payment structure, once you hit the higher level you do not go back to the lower ones if you fail to meet your target goals. Here is a link to their web page that explains their compensation package.

The trick to making any money in an MLM like FL is that you need to find customers and those customers need to spend big money. There are about 5 red flags telling you that you will not make money through selling FL products:

  1. You need to constantly recruit new people to sell
  2. No promotion without a lot of recruits underneath you
  3. You have to buy the products first
  4. The money flows up not to you
  5. At least 5 levels of payouts

Making money through an MLM corporation is a pipe dream as less than 1% actually make it into the top echelons of the company and draw the big bucks. Usually, that 1% got in on the ground floor when the company was new and there was actually no competition from co-workers and recruits.

Oh and you need to be aware of the fact that FL is not the only beauty product company out there. Not only are you competing with your own company, you are competing with other MLM companies who sell the same type of products.


Legal Troubles For Forever Living

It seems that most MLM companies run into some sort of legal trouble as they expand their market. In 1993 the Japanese tax agency fined the company 3.5 billion yen for hiding over 7.7 billion yen in revenue. The fine was later dropped at the request of the American IRS.

what is forever living company

Then in 2004 Hungary found that FL made false claims about some of its products and were fined the equivalent of $280,000. Also, 2007 saw a lawsuit brought by the author of Johnathon Seagull, the settlement of that case came through arbitration and the company changed its logo from a seagull to an eagle.

Finally, 2015 brought another false claim charge against the company. This time by the UK Advertising Standards Authority. The company was warned only. Soon another investigation started when NHS personal were doing double duty as FL sales people. No results from that investigation have been announced.

In other words, when it comes to MLM companies like FL, honesty is rarely the driving force behind their efforts. This can also be seen through the complicated pay structures they have as well as the hype that is used to attract new sales people.


The Pros And Cons Of Forever Living

Even MLM corporations have a lot of pros working for them. If they didn’t they would not be able to attract a lot of people to sell for them and no one would buy their products.

pros and cons

Here are some of the pros that come from working for FL: 

  1. Set your own hours
  2. Be your own boss
  3. Sell healthy products
  4. Earn commissions
  5. Fast promotion is available
  6. Supervise recruits
  7. Have support
  8. Bonuses and rewards are available


But like other MLM companies, FL has a lot of cons working against it. Here are some of those cons: 

  1. Over 9 million co-workers as competitors
  2. Complicated compensation package
  3. Have to purchase your own products first
  4. Monthly quotas
  5. Products are high priced
  6. Customers are few and far in between
  7. 96%+ failure rate


Are Forever Living Products FDA Approved

You would think so because of the way they market their product lines. But the sad reality is that any claims made by the company are not backed by the FDA. In other words, their products are not FDA approved.

what is forever living

Another problem to consider is that the FL products are not even manufactured according to FDA requirements. The company does add in synthetic nutrients to their products and are not all natural as has been claimed.

Also, there is no mentioning by the company, that we could find, that they do not test their products on animals.


The Company Policies Of Forever Living

We are not going to spend too much time here. We want to provide you a link to their company policy website so you can examine their company thoroughly. Some of the policies may surprise you especially those practices they frown on.

what is forever living company

You really should read the termination or suspension section under point #17. There is a possibility that you have to pay the company some money when they terminate you. Here is that link.


There Is A Better Way To Make Money

Everyone wants to make money. They also want a little financial security, some retirement funds and so on. If you believe the hype sent out by the MLM companies like FL, then you are in for a rude awakening. The money, the financial security, and so on is just not there.

What you need to do if you want a good and legitimate second income is to explore the world of affiliate marketing. The benefits and pros about affiliate marketing overwhelm those that come from working with an MLM corporation.

what is forever living company

Also, the cons or negatives are a lot less. There are no products to buy, no sign up fees and you do not have to recruit to make money. You do have to learn how to write good content, work the vital SEO strategies and keyword use but you do not have to ruin friendships to sell anything.

Affiliate marketing is designed to have the customer come to you. With the continuing growth of people becoming connected to the Internet, your market is growing at the same time. You are not going to run out of potential paying customers any time soon.

affiliate marketing

Yes, there is a lot of affiliate marketing competition, but you stand a better chance of beating your competitors there than in an MLM company that makes you recruit your own competition.

Affiliate marketing lets you earn a straight commission without kicking any of your earnings upstairs. Your commission stays with you and many times you get to pick the commission you earn.

Affiliate marketing is less stressful than MLM as well.


How To Start In Affiliate Marketing?

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We can recommend a training that helped us when we were starting. It is free to try and we highly recommend it if you are interested in making money online and affiliate marketing.

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About the Author


  • Vic A. says:

    Wow, my Mum used to buy Forever Living products so it’s very interesting to hear about their backstory.

    I’m so glad you’ve broken down how their company works and given the option for us to go and check out their stuff for ourselves and list out the pros and cons for us to make an informed decision.

    I’m sure you’ve saved many people a lot of time, money and stress with this informative post. Thank you!

    • Strahinja says:

      Thank you for the comment Vic.

      I am glad you enjoyed my article.

      Yes, I’ve tried to showcase all the important aspects of this coompany and make my readers decision easier.


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